The Wall Street Journal editorial today, Saturday, described Japan's recent announcement of a new defense strategy and spending on it as a historic shift, and said that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida deserves credit for taking the political risks of educating his country about the growing threats from China and North Korea and how to deter them. .
She indicated that Tokyo will increase defense spending to 2% of the economy by 2027. The newspaper considered that the strategic documents accompanying the declaration were right to call the current moment "the most severe and complex security environment" since the end of World War II.
The strategy explicitly mentions the "challenge" from Beijing, as 5 Chinese ballistic missiles landed in waters near Japan last August.
So are the routine missiles North Korea drops on the islands.
Tokyo says it will prepare for the "worst-case scenario" by acquiring long-range missiles that would make the enemy think twice about attacking a neighboring sovereign country.
The paper said the new strategy amounts to a revolution in Japanese domestic politics, essentially bypassing its post-war pacifist constitution.
It builds on the vision of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who sheds her post-war reluctance to build a strong army.
She concluded that the new strategy firmly establishes Japan in the American alliance.
Since Tokyo is the most important ally of the United States, the "military stronger Japan" will strengthen deterrence in the Pacific Ocean.